


more than summer and afternoons

by elizaeverafter



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, M/M, Pining, Unhappy Ending, Unrequited Love, oblivious boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:07:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24258640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizaeverafter/pseuds/elizaeverafter
Summary: Justin and March start dating, and Adam is not okay.
Relationships: Adam "Holster" Birkholtz/Justin "Ransom" Oluransi, March/Justin "Ransom" Oluransi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	more than summer and afternoons

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this while listening to [in luv with u](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9L5Kew4KeQ) on repeat and remembering my first heartbreak so that's the vibe

Their freshman year, Adam Birkholtz and Justin Oluransi click immediately after meeting. Within moments they become Holster and Ransom, to each other and to everyone else. They laugh ridiculously loud when together. They get made fun of being attached at the hip. They’re so in sync that it surprises them even years later. 

Adam doesn’t really think about it; he just enjoys having his best bro with him all the time. So what if they wake up at the same time and eat all their meals together and spend hours playing video games and partying when they’re not in class? So what if the only time they’re separated outside of lectures is when one of them leaves to get some with the hottest puck bunny? So what if they still come back to their room and sleep in their own beds so they can wake up together again?

Adam doesn’t think about it until it stops.

One rainy day in September, Ransom tells him with a shy smile that he’s dating this girl called March. 

A jolt of something unknown goes through Adam - and he’s not sure how to respond. Adam recalls her name, but only because Ransom slept with her a couple of times their frog year. He feels angry at first, when Ransom tells him that this has been in the works since July. How did he not notice? Is he a bad bro?

He shoves the anger away and pastes on a smile. Good for Rans. He deserves to be happy. He ignores the part of him that keeps telling him something’s not right, especially when Ransom just grins and lightly punches his arm. Everything is fine.

It goes like this for a couple of months: Adam wakes up and his first thought is Ransom, but Ransom spends nearly half of his mornings at March’s apartment on campus. Adam has breakfast, usually with the rest of the team, and he tries not to grimace when Shitty plops himself down on the spot that Ransom would occupy when he’s with him. They still play video games and watch stupid romcoms and throw a few kegsters, but Adam’s heart isn’t in it. 

Adam’s been a loud guy since the womb, kicking at his poor mother constantly for attention. But the months after Ransom starts dating March, he gets a little quieter. He still talks Ransom’s ears off, but when his ice partner isn’t around, Adam just doesn’t have as much to say. 

He feels guilty. His best bro deserves the world, and here Adam is, brimming in jealousy, because someone else is invading on their sacred d-men time together. He’s a terrible friend because he can’t stop himself from getting a little irritated every time Ransom chooses to hang out with March instead of him. Yeah, sure, they’re getting older and bound to be in serious relationships eventually, but Adam would never just ditch Ransom to suck face with a girl. He thought Ransom and him had something deeper than that.

When Ransom and March spend their first Valentine’s Day together, Adam fakes a migraine instead of accompanying the frogs and Bitty to the party the volleyball girls are throwing. He lays in his bed,  _ 30 Rock _ playing on his laptop next to him, and he can’t figure out why he feels so fucking empty. He takes a shower to try to improve his mood, but when he stares at his reflection and sees how dull his eyes have gotten, how his hair isn’t as soft as Ransom claims it to be whenever he’s  _ shwasted _ , Adam just feels worse. He still jerks off in the shower. Ransom doesn’t come back to the Haus that night. 

By the time spring break rolls around, Ransom and March are still dating. The team didn’t make the playoffs this year, so they have a free week. Adam had planned on spending it at Niagara with Ransom and maybe some of the other guys, just fucking around and having an obnoxiously good time, but he overhears Ransom on the phone, sounding a little too anxious for Adam’s comfort. He’s about to barge in and demand what’s wrong, when he finally picks up on the conversation. Ransom is nervous about meeting March’s parents. During spring break. Adam clenches his jaw and walks back down the attic stairs. He sits himself down on their green couch and turns the TV on just to have something to do. When Ransom gets back from the attic and flops down next to Adam, Adam pulls away slightly before their arms can press together. 

It’s the fourth day of break when Adam is alone in Buffalo that he finally admits just how in love he is with Justin. He’s spent every minute away from the Haus stopping himself from calling Justin. He knows Justin is in Indiana with March and her family. It’s a big milestone in their relationship - he can’t intrude. He also knows that Justin isn’t thinking about him, because if he was, then he’d call, right? It’s not like Adam has anything more important to do than hear Justin’s voice over the phone or see his new haircut through FaceTime.

He can’t even pretend that this came out of the blue - not when he felt his heart rip out of his chest every time Justin blew him off, always so kindly, to hang out with March. He admits that he’s not jealous of March for taking up Justin’s time, but rather for just taking  _ Justin _ . He’s jealous that March gets to hear Justin’s laugh more than he does these days, and that she gets to cuddle up next to him, straddle him, touch him, fuck him. Adam jerks off, but this time a few tears spill out when he’s done and laying across his bed. 

When break ends, and Adam sees Justin again, he’s torn about how to act. A part of him wants to shove Justin, yell at him for sending just one measly text over the span of nearly two weeks. Wants to rage about how meaningless their friendship has become, and it’s all Justin’s fault because Adam would rip out his heart, both kidneys,  _ anything  _ if Justin only asked. Another part of him wants to run, to never see Justin’s warm eyes gazing at him or the hickey on the edge of his t-shirt collar. And still another part wants nothing more than to wrap Justin in his arms and never move. It wants to press their lips together, over and over and over, until there’s no telling where Adam ends and Justin begins. 

Adam does none of these things. He lets a smile spread across his face, thumps Justin once on the back, and helps him with his bags.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to yell at me in the comments or on my [tumblr](http://omgsanityplease.tumblr.com)


End file.
